EQUIPO CRONICA (Rafael Solbés & Manuel Valdés Blanco).
Small 4to. (210 x 228 mm). [Single folded sheet]. A single sheet pasted into the wrapper at both ends with screenprint recto only and folded to form 20 pages, the pages featuring 14 numbered silkscreen compositions conceived either as single pages or double-page spreads, final verso with details of the compositions, reproductions of the authors' / artists' photographs (with eyes blacked out), their fingerprints, signatures and other details; sheet size: c.200 x 4,444 mm. Pasted as issued into original publisher's blue portfolio with elastic fastening, white screenprint label with title to front cover with additional details in black. The extraordinary, scarce Pop artist book by the influential Spanish art collective 'Equipo Crónica'. Issued in the form of a film storyboard - even the cover reproduces the blue folder of a storyboard or screenplay - 'Seria Negra' is a monochromatic screenprint composition of individual frames printed in a lush chocolate and cream. 'Equipo Crónica', the collective that produced the book, were a Pop-influenced duo of Manolo Blasco Valdés and Rafael Solbes (a third member had departed in 1967) founded in Valencia in 1964. Early exhibitions with Clavé, Saura, Tàpies and others prompted Valdés and Solbes to form first 'Estampa Popular', a broader, looser grouping with shared artistic aims and then the smaller, more focussed 'Equipo Crónica'. 'Equipo Crónica' despite its use of seemingly bland and decontextualised American-influenced Pop imagery was always subversive, but artists had to be subtle in Franco's Spain and the collective's oeuvre was rarely overtly so. The present artist book with its 1930s /1940s film noir imagery of gangsters, shakedowns, molls and gangland hits, all against bizarre found backgrounds (Lichtenstein's work seems to feature heavily) is disorientating but highly original. Monochrome paintings with added colour and large screenprints of some of the images were also issued and each of these feature a large multi-coloured vignette not present in the book versions. 'The Spanish artist's group Equipo Crónica chronicled social and political concerns through a satirical art. While their themes referred to Spain's government and institutions, and to its great - but stifling - artistic past, the group also took aim at American imperialism and military might.' (Weitman / Wye pg. 115). OCLC reports copies at MoMA and the Fairleigh Dickinson Library only; we can trace no further copies. [see Wye & Weitman's 'eye on europe: prints, books & multiples / 1960 to now', MoMA, 2006;
DUCHAMP, Marcel & André Breton.
Small folio. (266 x 184 mm). [26 unnumbered leaves]. Leaf of wove turquoise paper with introductory texts by Breton in English and French and credits verso, leaf with list of sponsors verso, leaf with title with calligrammatic list of contributors verso, 'Foreword' by Sidney Janis and contents including monochrome vignettes, reproduction photographs and illustration throughout, printed text in English and French throughout, all on glossy white paper, final leaf of wove turquoise paper. Original publisher's yellow printed perforated glossy wrappers by Marcel Duchamp (see below), stapled as issued, front cover with monochrome reproduction photograph of a wall and five small circular holes (matching bullet holes in the wall) making visible the turquoise initial leaf, rear cover with monochrome reproduction photograph of cheese and title and exhibition details in green. An excellent copy of the seminal 1942 'Surrealism-in-Exile' exhibition catalogue. Curated by André Breton and featuring - among many other exhibits - Duchamp's installation of twine ('Sixteen Miles of String'), 'First Papers of Surrealism' was held in 1942 from October 14th to 7th November at the Whitelaw Reid Mansion in Madison Avenue to benefit France. The first major exhibition of Surrealism in America, 'First Papers of Surrealism' - as an exhibition and catalogue it followed closely previous Surrealist exhibitions and catalogues - included precursors, Surrealists who had fled the war in Europe as well as allusion to those who remained ('Circumstances make it impossible for us to represent properly or by their most recent works, a number of artists . Rather than give an insufficient idea of them, we have with regret omitted surrealist objects from this catalogue . '); where examples of artists' work are included, found photographs depicting others are displayed in place of portraits of the artists or writers themselves. Featuring Sydney Janis' 'Introduction', text by R. A. Parker ('Explorers of the Pluriverse') and extracts of letters from Matisse, reproductions of Surrealist works and images of Surrealist heroes and heroines, contributors to the exhibition included Duchamp, Ernst, Tanguy, Gordon Onslow-Ford, Kay Sage, David Hare, Frida Kahlo, Alexander Calder, Robert Motherwell, Wifredo Lam, Meret Oppenheim and many, many others. Duchamp's 'Sixteen Miles of String' was produced - string was a cheap material but Duchamp only used two of the sixteen miles he purchased, one for the initial installation which caught fire and another mile to replace it - at the behest of Elsa Schiaparelli and caused 'an entanglement which the visitor experienced in finding his way to the paintings.' 'The surrealist cause, in art as in life, is the cause of freedom itself. Today more than ever to speak abstractly in the name of freedom or to praise it in empty terms is to serve it ill. To light the world freedom must become flesh and to this end must always be reflected and recreated in the 'word'.' (André Breton's 'Foreword'). 'For the front cover, Duchamp chose a closeup of the wall of Kurt Seligmann's barn in Sugar Loaf, New York, on which can be seen the traces of five rifle shots actually fired by Duchamp, the paper is perforated in correspondence with the shots. (By a tragic coincidence, Kurt Seligmann ended his life with a rifle shot twenty years later.) For the back cover, Duchamp reproduced a slice of Gruyere cheese, greatly enlarged, on which the title, date, and place of the exhibition are printed.' (Schwarz). [see Schwarz Revised 487; Schwarz 313; Lebel 180].
ILIAZD.
16mo. (210 x 135 mm, unfolded). [Single folded sheet]. Bifolium of thick wove paper (likely the same as that for the printed book) with letterpress printed text in black recto and verso. The scarce invitation to the opening of the exhibition of Iliazd's typographic masterpiece of visual, phonetic and sound poetry: 'Poésie de Mots Inconnus.' A typical example of Iliazd's clear typography and likely printed by Imprimerie Union the invitation is printed in characteristic capitals only. The vernissage for the exhibition of the 'bonnes feuilles du livre' took place on '30 juin 1949 à 17 heures' at Louis Broder's 'Thésée Galerie Graphique' in rue de l'Université. The invitation lists the contributing poets and artists in full (using their surnames only) and details that the invitation is issued 'de la part de Louis Broder'; the exhibition continued until July 12th. Iliazd had assembled examples of visual and sound poetry (dada, Futurism, zaum, calligrammatic and so on) to demonstrate a historical context denied by the provocative Isidore Isou and a younger generation of iconoclastic Lettrists. A battle of letters had developed over the previous couple of years and 'Poésie de Mots Inconnus' was to be Iliazd's published riposte after the chaotic mélée that concluded his 1947 lecture 'Après Nous le Lettrisme'. Iliazd's response to the Lettrists was a remarkable interplay of typographic innovation and illustration, a demonstration of the novelties of the pioneers of visual poetry combined with the illustrative printing techniques of the visual avant garde (see below for a complete list of the poets and artists involved). As per Johanna Drucker: 'He [Iliazd] was not so much working at a mimetic redundancy of verbal and graphic qualities as he was demonstrating the theatrical potential of the page.' 'Ce livre édité par Iliazd vient en réponse aux prétentions novatrices des lettristes. Iliazd y rassemble vingt-et-un poètes et vingt-trois peintres. Poèmes de Akinsemomyin, Albert-Birot, Arp, Artaud, Audiberti, Ball, Beauduin, Bryen, Dermée, Hausmann, Huidobro, Iliazd, Jolas, Khlébnikov, Krutchonykh, Picasso, Poplavsky, Schwitters, Seuphor, Téréntiev, Tzara, ornés de gravures et lithographies par Arp, Braque, Bryen, Chagall, Dominguez, Férat, Giacometti, Gleizes, hausmann, Laurens, Léger, Magnelli, Masson, Matisse, Metzinger, Miro, Picasso, Survage, Taueber-Arp, Tytgat, Villon, Wols, Ribemont-Dessaignes.' (From the catalogue of the Fonds Iliazd in the Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Paris).
BROODTHAERS, Marcel.
Square 8vo. (200 x 200 mm). [14 doubled leaves; pp. 28]. Leaf with introduction / collophon in French by Gevaert and initialled by Broodthaers in red recto, verso and following leaves with reproduction of various font samples, two central leaves with colour lithographs recto and verso, following leaves with reproduction of various font samples, final leaf verso with colophon / introduction in English by Gevaert and initialled and numbered by Broodthaers in red ink; copyright to foot of inner front wrapper, pagination throughout in red. Original publisher's printed wrappers with cloth-tape spine as issued, titles in red and black and monochrome illustrations to front and rear covers, original white card folder with title to front cover and achevé d'imprimer to rear. A good copy of Broodthaers' artist book 'Un Jardin d'Hiver' with the original portfolio. From the edition limited to 120 copies, each numbered and signed with initials by Broodthaers in red ink to final leaf; he has also initialled the first page in the same red ink. 'Selon le point de vue de l'auteur et le mien il pourrait servir de commentaire au décor 'Un Jardin d'Hiver' planté en janvier 1974 au Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles'. (From Gevaert's introduction / colophon). Broodthaers? installation of a winter garden in the museum in Brussels included palm trees, folding chairs and natural history prints. The pictures showed representations which seemed to have been taken from zoological and botanical encyclopaedias of the 19th century, displayed either in picture frames hung on the wall or in horizontal wooden showcases, as for the exhibits in science museums. The four colour lithographs in this artist book are taken similarly from earlier colour-plate bird books. [Jamar 41; Ceuleers 42; Werner 18; Künstler Bücher 16; Das Archiv Sohm 309].
(CUNARD, Nancy & Louis Aragon). Cloud, Y. (Pseud. Nancy Cunard & Louis Aragon).
4to. (254 x 202 mm). [Single bifolium: two leaves]. Drophead title, section title 'Exposition of the Facts' and printed text recto and verso on thick wove paper, signature Y. Cloud at foot of text; central horizontal fold and trace of paperclip to verso of second leaf. Loose as issued. An excellent example of this very scarce English Surrealist tract on Buñuel and Dalì's film 'L'Age d'Or' likely written by Nancy Cunard and Louis Aragon and printed at Cunard's own Hours Press. This scarce English-language tract, likely printed shortly before the first showing of 'L'Age 'Or' in England in January 1931, opens with 'Exposition of the Facts', which details the initial reception of the film in France, analyses the scandal it caused and outlines the resulting outcry, political and religious, and its final effects. The second, untitled section of the tract assesses the film itself, quotes from 'Le Figaro' and refers in detail to its content and delineates its meaning. Written under a pseudonym, 'Y. Cloud' (the 1937 book 'The Basque Children in England: An Account of their Life at North Stoneham Camp' has the same pseudonymous author), it is thought that it was the work of Nancy Cunard and Louis Aragon. 'L'Age d'Or', the 63 minute, 1931 film, directed by Luis Buñuel, written by Buñuel and Salvador Dalì (also with credit to the Marquis de Sade) and produced by Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles is a Surrealist masterpiece and scathing satire of bourgeois morality, an attack on the hypocrisy of Catholic mores and an emotive lament for the demented nature of modern life. As the text indicates, the film had passed the censor and was shown from November 28th to Decembebr 2nd, 1930, without remark, but on the following day events took a different turn and the performance was interrupted by the League of Patriots and the Anti-Semitic League shouting, throwing ink at the screen, dispersing the audience with smoke- and stink-bombs and blackjacks and destroying works (some were also stolen) by Dalí, Ernst, Miró, Man Ray et al. in the adjacent exhibition hall. Over the next few days the film was censored, denounced in the press, ordered to be censored again, derided as anti-French, of German and Bolshevik origin, produced by 'refuse' and was finally banned on December 11th. The cinema where the film was shown was raided and all copies were apparently seized. As the pamphlet makes clear however: ' . by an unpardonable oversight, the Paris police failed to seize all the copies extant' and the film was shown in London on January 2nd, 1931 at a screening organised by Cunard herself in Wardour Street. 'One of the copies that survived was smuggled over to London by Aragon . According to Crowder [Henry Crowder] (who disapproved of the film, which he described as 'extremely sexy and very anti-religious'), from the time the row broke in Paris Nancy had been obsessed with the idea of showing it in London . She arranged a screening for January at a Wardour Street cinema and sent invitations not only to all her friends but also to everyone whom she considered ought to be on the side of the avant-garde and against censorship. She also printed a synopsis of the film, an account of the campaign waged against it in Paris, and a statement about its serious intentions and artistic importance . '. (Anne Chisholm). 'It is not possible to give a synopsis, in the orderly Hollywood sense of the term, of 'L'AGE D'OR', but we may to this extent follow the example of our guilt-ridden French colleagues of the Press . and give a selection of incidents from the film (whose own aesthetic form is based on a significant selection and rejection, wherein sequence means emotional sequence, cause and effect being transposed into the key of event and symbol: more in the likeness, we may say, of the realities we are occasionally able to recognise within ourselves than of those phantasies with which the Church, the State, the Law, the Police, the Yellow Press, the Station Bookstall and the Paramount screen seek to scarify or distract attention away from the reality of their own corruption.) . The theme which runs with exquisite purity through L'AGE D'OR is the 'behavious' of a human being who pursues the erotic ideal in face of the debased humanitarian and patriotic standards of so-called objective reality.' (From the text). OCLC lists a single copy of this tract, that at Yale in the US; COPAC details no further examples. [see José Pierre's 'Tracts surréalistes et déclarations collectives &c.' I, pg. 449; see Anne Chisholm's 'Nancy Cunard', London, 1979].
FURTTENBACH, Joseph.
Small folio. (322 x 194 mm). pp. (xxiv), 120; (xx), 78; (xii), 78. Each work with engraved frontispiece, decorative printed title in red and black, dedication, Vorhede and Register; Architectura Recreationis with 35 engraved plates; Architectura Civilis with 40 engraved plates; Architectura Privata with 14 engraved plates; all plates folding and mounted to sheets matching those for the text for ease of folding, frontispiece for Architectura Privata bound after text, all works with elaborate decorative woodcut head- and tail-pieces and decorative initials throughout, German text in Gothic type throughout. Sheet size: single (text) leaf: 311 x 194 mm; folding plates of various sheet sizes: 370 x 300 mm (maximum). The plates by various engravers, largely after Furttenbach himself. Full contemporary vellum, titles stamped in blind direct to head of spine. [PROVENANCE: Engraved bookplate with the text 'Ex Bibliotheca Velseriana' (likely Carolus Velser 1635 - 1697) to front pastedown; with the stamp of 'G. W. Günther to front board and lower margin of title of each work [Lugt 1114] and his signature to rear pastedown in sepia ink [Lugt 1115]; ownership signature 'Shelburne' in sepia ink to front pastedown; bookplate of bookplate of Emily, Marchioness of Lansdowne (1819 - 1895) to rear pastedown; various location details in pencil and ink to pastedowns]. A sammelband of three of Furttenbach's architectural treatises, each a production of beautiful engraved plates and distinctive mise-en-page. The three books relate to speculative or fantastic architecture (showing what may be achieved), civil architecture and that for a more domestic and restricted market. The design of each book is highly-accomplished, with distinctive typography and Furttenbach's text keyed to the elaborate Baroque engravings with a clear methodology. Of particular interest are those plates that deal with gardens - Furttenbach is innovative for his day in Germany - with plates showing elaborate mazes, small kitchen gardens, walled gardens and parterres, elaborate palaces, bourgeois houses, churches, theatres, cottages, orchards, stage and set designs (Furttenbach had studied in Italy with Giulio Parigi), decorative schemes, architectural details, plans and so on. 'Furttenbach (1591 - 1667), the elder of two architects of that name, was an architect in Ulm in South Germany who had previously spent ten years in Italy. His is an extensive collection of writings on every aspect of contemporary architecture, showing the extent to which architects were still expected to be jacks-of-all-trades . The plates . show his skill as a planner from everything from a palace downwards, including gardens and mazes; all are taken from his measured drawings.' (Weinreb). The binding, with the distinctive title stamped direct to the head of the spine, is of a pair with that for a sammelband of works by Kircher, although the Kircher volume (of a similar period of production) features Carolus Velser's arms to the boards; the matching bookplates make it probable that they were both bound at a similar date for Velser. These three works were reprinted as a single volume in 1971. [Berlin 1957, 1953, 1958; see Weinreb 38:82; Millard 34 for Architectura Civilis; Fowler 131 for Architectura Civilis; not in Cicognara].
BLAKE, William.
4to. (251 x 200 mm). [27 leaves]. Leaf with pictorial lithograph title and 26 leaves of thick wove paper with lithograph text and illustration, all after William Blake by Henry Bellars and all with additional colouring and heightening in watercolour by hand. Original publisher's vellum-backed blue paper-covered boards. The first published facsimile of any of William Blake's illuminated books, John Camden Hotten's 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'. From the edition limited to 150 (possibly 153) copies. This facsimile, made c.1868 and the first of any of William Blake's illuminated books, features lithograph text and illustration with the colour provided in watercolour by hand. Blake's original work, printed using copper engraving for the text and outlines and then finished by hand, was produced c.1790 - 1793 and is extant in only nine complete copies, each unique, and some fragments. This facsimile was produced by using copy 'F', dated by scholars to c.1795, now held by New York's The Morgan Library & Museum. At the time the facsimile was produced the original was in the collection of Richard Monckton Milnes, Baron Houghton (1809 - 1885) and as per 'Blake Books', Houghton lent it to the publisher John Camden Hotten for reproduction. A note in the supplement volume to 'Blake Books', taken from 'Sir Geoffrey Keynes' copy of his 'Bibliography' (1921) (now in Cambridge University Library)' suggests otherwise: 'Edward Gordon Duff told John Sampson that Lord Houghton lent his copy of the original to Swinburne, and that Camden Hotten made his facsimile [1868] without permission, whereat Lord Houghton was much incensed.' The publisher John Camden Hotten was the first to publish a critical study of Blake (Swinburne's 'William Blake: A Critical Essay' (1868) that included too the first colour reproductions of works by Blake. For the 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' facsimile, planned as the first of many, he made use of the skill of the artist Henry Bellars, described by H. Spencer Ashbee as 'perhaps the best facsimilist that ever lived' who likely made use of a photographic process to transfer the text and image to the stone (see Morton Paley's extensive exegesis for fuller details). Hotten's project to issue further facsimiles was curtailed by Bellars death in the year this was issued. All copies of this 1868 facsimile, printed on a thick wove stock chosen for its similarity to Blake's original paper, feature spotting, foxing and staining - a result of the reaction between the printing ink, the hand-applied watercolour and the paper - as well as some oxidisation of the inks used; the present example features foxing and staining as usual, although largely marginal, but the colour remains bright and fresh and comparable to that of the original book. 'For every thing that lives is Holy'. (William Blake). 'Some time during the first months of 1790 a devil spoke to William Blake, an alter ego who revealed a truth and with whom a marriage was conceived, leaving neither the devil nor Blake the same again. The child of this union was 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' . It is a work that deliberately unsettles and questions, prods and cajoles, challenging the way we think. It tells us that evil is good and good evil, and promises us a Bible of Hell. The 'Proverbs of Hell' have become a lexicon of protest and liberation, upsetting convention and subverting authority, made all the more memorable by the spirit of exuberant delight that characterizes their collective wisdom.' (Michael Phillips). [Blake Books I, 99, see also 98, pp. 285 - 304 & Supplement 98, pp. 97 - 101; Keynes 210; Bentley & Nurmi 85; see Morton D. Paley's 'John Camden Hotten, A. C. Swinburne, and the Blake Facsimiles of 1868', Bulletin of the New York Public Library, Vol. 79, 1975 - 1976; see also Bodleian facsimile, 2011].
SELDEN, John. (Ed. & Trans.).
Small 4to. (200 x 152 mm). pp. (i), XXXVIII, 184. Printed title in red and black, manuscript '1642' in blue ink beneath Roman numerals and the same date in blue ink in Arabic numerals at right, 13 leaves with Selden's 'Praefatio' with elaborate woodcut head-piece and four-line intital, 6 leaves with Eutychius' parallel text in Arabic and Latin with headline in red and black, decorative woodcut head- and tail-pieces, decorative Arabic initial 'ya' with woodcut border and four-line initial to Latin text and Selden's detailed and extensive 'Commentarius' with elaborate woodcut head-piece and decorative 7-line initial, one woodcut of a Roman coin in the text, final leaves with 'Interserenda' with woodcut head-piece, errata to final leaf verso between type rules. Printed text in Latin and Arabic throughout with occasional Greek and Hebrew, using Roman, italic, Arabic, Greek and Hebrew types; manuscript correction in sepia ink, 'tum' for 'ac' in line 27 on pg. 183. Contemporary full vellum with Yapp edges, manuscript title in sepia ink to spine, later paper label with location details (?). The first edition of the first book printed in England to make extensive use of Arabic type. ' . it can be considered as the first Arabic book to be printed in England.' (Geoffrey Roper). Eutychius of Alexandria (877 - 940), i.e. Sa'id Ibn Batriq, was a doctor, appointed Melkite Patriarch of Alexandria in 932 and one of the first Christian Egyptian authors to write extensively in Arabic. His most important work was the 'Nazm al-Jawhar' (the Row of Jewels) and it is an excerpt from that work that is presented here. This critical edition, presented in the original Arabic and with a Latin translation together with extensive analytic commentary, was prepared by John Selden (1584 - 1654), the remarkable polyglot academic (he was competent in, or at least familiar with, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Chaldean, Samaritan, Aramaic, Farsi, Ge'ez, Old English, German, French, Spanish and Italian), antiquarian, historian, jurist and parliamentarian (he had long served as an MP and in different constituencies but at the time of publication was one of the two MPs representing Oxford University in the Long Parliament). Selden's selection from Eutychius' text treats of the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the early Christian church while his extensive commentary in Latin with additional extensive quotation from a variety of Arabic, Greek, Hebrew and Latin sources includes a list in Arabic of the first 307 Alexandrian Patriarchs. Selden's preface gives details of Eutychius and his life and medical practise, surveys Arabic manuscripts in Europe - he mentions scholars such as Erpenius - and relates how he purchased the manuscript he relied on for this edition from William Corderoy. Corderoy, like his fellow merchant Richard Hill, both merchants of the Levantine Company at Aleppo, were often the source of books for scholars; Edward Pococke, a friend and protegée of Selden's, procured the Gospels in Farsi for the English Polyglot through the pair. Pococke, the first Laudian Professor of Arabic at Oxford, was also responsible for another edition of Eutychius printed in 1656 by Henry Hall and paid for by Selden who did not live to see it published. Although Arabic type had been used prior to Selden's 'Eutychius' - and the earliest method had been via woodblocks inserted among metal type - it had been confined mainly to individual letters, short passages or quotations and had, at least until the mid-1630s been of very poor quality. William Stansby used Arabic metal type for the first time in England for Selden's 'Mare Clausum' (1635) and it was used again - this time by Bishop, the printer of Eutychius, who had bought Stansby's business - for the second edition of Selden's 'De Successionibus In Bona Defuncti' (1636) and his 'De Iure Naturali' (1640) but all three of these books used the type sparsely and irregularly with only the 1636 book including even a page. By the time o
7 vols. Square folio. (522 x 522 mm). [Blank leaf, title, contents, 32 leaves (Bleu), 39 leaves (Jaune), 25 leaves (Noir), 29 leaves (Orange), 26 leaves (Rouge), 31 leaves (Vert), 33 leaves (Violet), justification and final blank leaf]. Each vol. with printed title, list of contents and justification printed recto only and a varying number of leaves (see below) each with printed leaf number verso with offset printed colour stripes (width 88 mm) showing the varying colour compositions for each of the represented colours ('Bleu', 'Jaune', 'Noir', 'Orange', 'Rouge', 'Vert' and 'Violet'). Original publisher's white paper wrappers, printed title to front wrapper of each vol., spines with title, publisher and artist, loose as issued in original cream board slipcase. Daniel Buren's 1972 artist's book 'Passage' concerning the decomposition or recomposition of seven colours. From the edition limited to 110 unnumbered copies (including ten artist's proofs). Buren's multilingual punning title refers to the number of times that each sheet has been passed through the press, the act of the viewer's journey through each volume, and links, also, with his ongoing concern with the use of and movement through public and private space. 'Daniel Buren worked persistently on the provocation and subversion of the exhibition of art.' (Printed Matter, Die Sammlung Marzona). ' . Buren's Passage . is seven large bound volumes in a slipcase, all beautifully made. Each volume is a different color and the first page of each has been printed, or passed through the press once. The second pages have been passed through twice, and so forth, until at the end of the volume, the color saturation on the stripes is quite intense. At the start of the book the colors are extremely weak - barely distinguishable from the white of the page between the stripes. In a completely different spirit, this is a work which has been worked out very thoughtfully and with great finesse . '. (Art-Rite 14, 1976). [Buren C-64 / T IV 216; Krefeld Künstler: Bücher I, 44:4; Tehran 42].
8vo. (125 x 200 mm). 8 cards, each 125 x 200 mm (folded) each with a photo-based design printed in gold on front and short printed text by G&G within the card. Loose in four original envelopes: each pair of cards are presented in the original G&G mailing envelopes, with the artist's red or black stamp 'Red Boxers' to the front, and the oval 'Art for All' blindstamp to the rear flap. A complete set of 'Red Boxers', the Gilbert & George postal sculpture. Each element of this piece was mailed over a period of weeks to friends, collectors and dealers. Each card is signed by the artists. Cards are entitled as follows: Wooden, Anything, Stone-ish, Moved, Stillness, Come, Study, Chapel. The cards are printed alternately on red or black card, and an intricate colour system is followed throughout the work, which in turn initiates an integral aspect of the sculpture: the four red cards have the text printed in red within, each of their envelopes have the 'Red Boxers' stamp in red, and the addressee has their name handwritten in red ink on the front of the envelope. However the artists sign each of the red cards in black ink; the four black cards, in comparison, have this colour system inverted in that their text is printed in black, and their envelopes are stamped in black with the addressee also written in black, however with G&G's signatures now written in red ink. Although this set has only four of the eight original encvelopes, the schema as described above still applies but with two cards for each envelope. [Die Sammlung Marzona in der Kunstbibliothek pg.120; Gilbert & George 1968 to 1980, pp. 176 - 177].
8vo. (204 x 126 mm). [2 leaves]. Leaf with preface recto, verso with printed text and five mounted specimens, 'A Sculpture Sample Entitled Sculptors? Samples: 1. G & G?s make-up. 2. G & G?s tobacco and ash. 3. G & G?s hair. 4. G & G?s coat and shirt. 5. G & G?s breakfast', leaf with publication details and loosely inserted are 5 original monochrome photographs of the artists in original plastic folder. (each c.50 x 70 mm). Original card wrappers with printed titles in black to front cover with elaborate masonic architectural decoration in relief and two small colour illustrations with silver highlights (Gilbert & George dressed as footballers), justification to rear cover. An excellent example of Gilbert & George's extraordinary 'postal sculpture' including original photographs and 'sculpture samples'. From the edition limited to 300 numbered copies, each numbered in sepia ink to rear cover. 'A Message from the Sculptors Gilbert & George', one of five 'postal sculptures' self-published by Gilbert & George in 1969, the first year of their production, is a portable wunderkammer of the artists? existence, containing original photographs and morsels of personal detritus, together with italic expressions of tender sentiments. The 5 original photographs, printed in monochrome in a small oblong format suitable for a picture album, show Gilbert & George in some of their best-known performance pieces: 'Underneath the Arches', from its first performance at the Slade School of Art in 1969; 'The Meal', a May 1969 performance with David Hockney; 'Dusk Stroll Piece 1969', showing the pair walking side by side in a twilit park; and 'Relaxing', depicting the very young collaborators lounging happily on a rooftop (and prominently inscribed in the negative 'A 1969 piece / A view of this city / sculpture. Relaxing [underlined] / took place on a bea- / utiful summer afternoon. / The sun shone mildly / down on the relaxing / sculptors [underlined]?). The fifth photograph is a double portrait of the artists in overlapping circles in opposing orientations. The verso of the first leaf features a chart of ?sculpture samples? from Gilbert & George, actual specimens of their body paint, pipe tobacco, hair (visibly two types of hair), clothing, and egg yolk, each elegantly mounted under transparent discs, with Garamond captions. Also includes two paragraphs of prefatory text. 'Gilbert and George, the sculptors, / are walking along a new road. / They left their little studio with / all the tools and brushes, taking / with them only some music, / gentle smiles on their faces and / the most serious intentions in the / world.' The final leaf includes the publication details and the announcement: 'Gilbert and George have a wide range / of sculptures for you - singing sculpture, / interview sculpture, dancing sculpture, / meal sculpture, walking sculpture, / nerve sculpture, cafe sculpture, and / philosophy sculpture. / So do contact us.' [Printed Matter. Die Sammlung Marzona in der Kunstbibliothek. The Marzona Collection at the Kunstbibliothek, p.120; Gilbert & George 1968 to 1980, pg. 61].
4to. (276 x 216 mm). [Single leaf]. Drophead title and printed text in French recto only on cream wove paper, dated and with the address at lower left, signed by the participants at lower right. Loose as issued. The scarce Surrealist tract 'AVIS' denouncing Giorgio de Chirico, his 1928 exhibition in Brussells, his arrogance and his treason. Although a proto-Surrealist painter - perhaps the most important in terms of Surrealism - and one esteemed initially by the Surrealists, their relationship became problematic and ended in acrimony and mutual antipathy. The early 'classical' paintings de Chirico made were highly esteemed by the Surrealists but his later technical preoccupations and then his revival of earlier themes, unsuccessfully in their partial view, provoked a decline and then break in their relations. The present tract, signed by Aragon and Breton as well as the Belgians Nougé and Goemans, was written against the background of early Surrealist activities in Belgium and de Chirico's 1928 exhibition of paintings at the gallery 'Le Centaure'. The text denounces de Chirico - in characteristic Surrealist double-think and suspecting a conspiracy - as a painter 'qui s'est arrogé le droit de trahir une pensée qui depuis longtemps a cessé d'être la sienne' and worse, 'au profit de ceux-là même qui n'en ont jamais pénétré le mystère'. 'The quarrel between de Chirico and the surrealists became more and more intense, particularly after the artist's return to Paris in 1925. It reached a climax in 1928, when Breton's 'Le Surréalisme et la Peinture' was published . Breton's text about the artist is scathing in its denunciation of the latter's art and attitude . In 1928 the leading surrealists also published a broadhseet attacking an exhibition of de Chirico's recent pictures at Brussels. From this date on the breach between the painter and the surrealists was never healed; indeed their dispute became thoroughly vituperative and continued so even after the decline of surrealism as a cohesive movement.' (James Thrall Soby). The tract has only some very minor creasing to the head of the sheet but is in otherwise fresh condition and remains a very good example of this offprint. Scarce in commerce and in institutions we locate a single copy in EUrope at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Germany and four copies in the US, at Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Iowa and the Met. [see James Thrall Soby's 'Giorgio de Chirico', New York, 1955].
(234 x 185 mm). [19 unnumbered leaves of smooth cream wove paper]. Leaf with title, leaf with vignette woodcut by Kirchner with statement by the Brücke recto and verso and text of the catalogue listing work by Cuno Amiet, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Max Pechstein, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Otto Müller illustrated with 13 full-page original woodcuts by and after members of the group (see below), leaf with vignette title recto, verso and following two leaves with wooodcut text and illustration by Kirchner ('Mitglieder der Künstlergruppe Brücke'), final verso blank; 20 original woodcuts by Heckel (four including that for the wrapper by Heckel), Kirchner (eleven including the vignette title and four text pages for 'Mitglieder der Künstlergruppe Brücke), Pechstein (three) and Schmidt-Rottluff (two). Original publisher's ochre printed card wrappers pasted over stapled leaves as issued, front cover with woodcut illustration and title in black by Heckel, printer's credit to rear. The very rare first exhibition catalogue for the Künstlergruppe Brücke illustrated with original woodcuts by Kirchner, Heckel, Pechstein and Schmidt-Rottluff. Although founded in 1905, the Künstlergruppe Brücke produced only three exhibition catalogues. The present catalogue, issued in 1910, was the first and like the two following catalogues, both from 1912 and for exhibitions in Berlin and Hamburg, featured original woodcuts. Die Brücke, the Dresden-based association of Expressionist artists formed by Fritz Bleyl (who left as early as 1907), Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff - later joined by Max Pechstein, Otto Mueller and Emil Nolde - created a profoundly Modernist and highly influential aesthetic by rejecting prevalent academic styles and forging the new from the both the modern avant garde and the past of Dürer, Cranach, Grünewald et al. The original woodcuts for the present catalogue (see below) are not only superb examples of Expressionism but also noteworthy for their interplay, with each artist interpreting the work of another: Schmidt-Rottluff after Heckel, Kirchner after Heckel, Heckel after Kirchner, Kirchner after Pechstein, Pechstein after Kirchner, Heckel after Pechstein, Heckel after Schmidt-Rottluff and so on. Although other schools and movements have demonstrated affinities of technique, medium and outlook, in no other is the interplay demonstrated by Die Brücke so marked or profound. 'Die Ausstellung der Brücke in der Galerie Arnold war in mehrfacher Hinsicht bemerkenswert. Es erschien ein in Gestaltung und Aufmachung einzigartiger, zum ersten Mal von Künstlern selbst konzipierter Katalog, der das gesteigerte Selbstbewußtsein der Gruppe verdeutlichte . An dem Katalog fallen folgende Besonderheiten auf: er enthält Original-Holzschnitte . Originell und für die enge Verbundenheit der Künstler untereinander bezeichnend ist, daß die Holzschnitte nach den Gemälden meist von einem anderen Künstler stammen und damit von einem anderen künstlerischen Temperament ausgeführt wurden als die ausgestellten Werke selbst. Die Holzschnitte sind nicht nur Hinweis auf ein kongeniales Verständnis unter den Malerfreunden, sondern sie zeigen auch, wie eng hier der künstlerische Ausdruck von Grafik und Malerei beieinander liegen . '. ('Stationen der Moderne: die bedeutenden Kunstausstellungen des 20. Jahrhunderts in Deutschland', Berlin, 1988). The original woodcuts are as follows: - HECKEL: KG Brücke (cover image) [Dube 177 I]; Fränzi after Kirchner [Dube 179 I]; Müßige Weiber after Pechstein [Dube 180 I]; Schlafender [Dube 178 I]; - KIRCHNER: Rudernde Samoanerin (vignette head-piece for first leaf of text) [Dube 725 I]; Mann und Frau after Heckel [Dube 723]; Badende [Dube 726]; Sitzender Akt after Pechstein [Dube 722]; Sandgräber am Tiber after Heckel [Dube 721]; Tanz after Pechstein [Dube 724]; - title vignette ('Mitglieder der Künstlergruppe Brücke') [Dube 700]; P[assiv]-M[itglieder] I - IV [Dube 701; 702 III; 703 II; 704]; - PECHSTEIN: Sitzender Mann nach Heckel [Krüger 92]; Artistin nach Kirchner [Krüger 93]; Badende nach Kirchner [Krüger 94]; - SCHMIDT-ROTTLUFF: Haus im Park [Schapire 49]; Schnitter [Schapire 50]. This catalogue is rare and COPAC details no examples in the UK; OCLC returns three copies in Germany (at the Sachsige Landesbibliothek, the Thüringer Landesbibliothek and the Kunstbibliothek Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), a copy in Switzerland (at the Biblioteca Cantonale) and three copies in the US (at the Getty, Yale and the Art Institute of Chicago). With its card covers and Yapp edges, the catalogue is fragile. The present example, with only some very slight wear to the spine and edges, a small (3 mm) tear to the lower edge of the front wrapper and a small area of loss at the foot fo the spine, remains in very fresh condition. The contents, on smooth wove paper, remain immaculate.
Oblong 12mo. (151 x 177 mm). [19 unopened doubled leaves]. Leaf with title with monochrome photographic vignette, 38 leaves with 77 colour or monochrome plates or vignettes recto and verso, final leaf verso with Broodthaers' warning against cutting; text and images printed on unopened doubled leaves with pagination to the interior, unopened and otherwise blank pages. Some tiny marks to front cover and a small tear to top of spine. Original publisher's glossy white wrappers, titles and vignette in black to front and rear covers, printed text (see below) to inner front cover, title and vignette photograph to inner rear cover. A good copy of the English edition of Marcel Broodthaers' legendary artist book. From the English language edition limited to 1,100 copies (including 100 édition de tête examples). This artist book, published to accompany a film of the same name, combines details from a 19th century painting of a fleet of fishing vessels and a photograph of a 20th century sailing boat, delivering a typically befuddling narrative. Printed on unopened doubled leaves, Broodthaers includes a warning text (to the inner front cover and to the final leaf verso) advising against opening the pages with a knife. As is usual with Broodthaers, the two warnings differ, as do the two versions of the title page (one in traditional situation, the second to the rear inner cover) and the front and rear covers. The first warning, opens with the words 'Before cutting the pages the reader had better beware of the knife he will be wielding for the purpose' before suggesting that the knife itself may turn into an 'idefinite sky' and 'It is up to the attentive reader to find out what devilish motive inspired this book's publication'; the first text concludes 'These pages must not be cut'. Broodthaer's second text opens with the same words but continues in a different vein, suggesting that the knife used may turn into 'a piece of office equipment', the admonition 'These pages must not be cut' follows here rather than at the end and in this iteration, Broodthaers' book has ceased to be 'devilish' (the word is omitted). 'I have bought the painted canvas, which is the subject of this little book, in a store in Paris, in the rue Jacob, a touristy place destined to become even more famous than the 'butte de Monmartre.' I had to pay quite a price for it, even though it isn't signed.' (Marcel Broodthaers referring to the painting in the present work). [Marcel Broodthaers - Complete Graphic Work & Books 39; Ceuleers 40].
12mo. (124 x 98 mm). [6 unnumbered leaves]. Leaf with title and exhibition details, two leaves with introductory text by Leo Paolazzi followed by three folding leaves, each with credit and details on folded section of leaf and monochrome reproduction on unfolded section, each showing one painting by Manzoni, Bonalumi and Castellani; unfolded leaves: 124 x 184 mm. Original publisher's pale blue printed wrappers with flaps, stapled as issued, with titles and exhibition details in red to front cover. A very scarce, early exhibition catalogue for the group show by Piero Manzoni and his close artistic allies Agostino Bonalumi and Enrico Castellani. The exhibition at Galleria Appia Antica took place from the 3 - 15 April 1959 and was the second group show of the trio (the first was at Galleria del Prisma in Milan in February) in 1959. The text is by Leo Paolazzi, a poet and friend of Manzoni, who later used the pseudonym Antonio Porta. Manzoni's contribution to the catalogue is an untitled 'Achrome' from 1958. 'In the late 1950s, Agostino Bonalumi met fellow Milanese artists Enrico Castellani and Piero Manzoni. As each was interested in the artwork as a material entity, a close association developed between the three. The esteemed critic Gillo Dorfles coined the term 'pittura oggetto' to describe their work; building on Lucio Fontana?s conceptual innovations, they attended to the artwork as an object in its own right rather than as a strictly representational form. (see Philllps online). This elegant catalogue is very scarce and we can locate only two copies, the first at the Royal Danish Library and the second at MoMA.
Large 8vo. (20.5 x 13 cm). (7 leaves: iii). 7 leaves, followed by 3 leaves of red, yellow and blue tissue. A mimeographed leaf of text is inserted loose. Original publisher's white stapled wrappers with titles printed in black to dust jacket A very good copy of the rarest volume in Ian Hamilton Finlay's 'Ocean Stripe Series' and his first kinetic poem-booklet. The kinetic booklets in the 'Ocean and Canal Stripe Series' were an innovation of Finlay's at the Wild Hawthorn Press, and an important contribution to concrete poetry and the artist book. 'Ocean Stripe Series 3' is a concrete poem / artist book inspired by the story of Noah, in which, after repetitions of the word 'ark', a lyrically beautiful rainbow of die-cut coloured papers is announced. Loosely inserted sheet, with printed passage from Genesis 9:13: 'I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token for a covenant between me and the earth.' [Moeglin-Delcroix - Esthétique du livre d?artiste. pp. 60, 66, 373; Yves Abrioux - Ian Hamilton Finlay. A visual primer, p. 19 (illus.)].